Mobility: Crucial to COVID-19 Response and Recovery

This post is part of our comprehensive look at how COVID-19 is reshaping the mobility landscape.  For more original research, project work, and thought leadership from the Sam Schwartz team, visit the COVID-19 Response + Analysis center.

By David Kaner, Communications Coordinator, and John Reinhardt, Director of Strategic Communications

Grounded flights.

Plunging transit ridership.

Empty streets.

The COVID-19 pandemic is rapidly changing the global mobility landscape. While much of the story has been about the suspension of activity, the need to ensuring safe and efficient movement of people and goods—essential workers to their jobs, food to stores, supplies to hospitals—remains paramount to emergency response. In the longer-term, everyone from public agencies to private developers will have to navigate a recovery period of unknown length and character. It will be crucial to apply lessons from this outbreak to future resilience efforts.

In Sam Schwartz’s 25 years of operations, we’ve helped with the response to 9/11 and Superstorm Sandy, as well as emergency planning everywhere from Washington, DC to Seattle. While every disaster is different, we’re leaning on our prior experience to shape our approach to the present crisis.

Below, we offer an overview of some of the critical areas in which urban planners and engineers can contribute in this moment, along with examples of how we’re approaching them in our own work.

Reorientation of public space: Pedestrians need more space to safely move around. Reapportioning streets away from cars could allow for wider sidewalks and new recreational spaces. Many cities around the country, such as Oakland and Denver, are setting examples of how this can be done without diverting stretched city resources; others will need to contend with this as activity returns to our streets. In DC, we are helping the District Department of Transportation plan and design low-cost, quick to implement solutions to provide more pedestrian space. Our staff are also working on a methodology for jurisdictions to prioritize open streets locations with an equity lens and developing typologies for guiding the implementation phase.

A concrete barrier creates additional pedestrian space to facilitate social distancing in Washington, D.C.

Modified public transport services: Transit agencies are deploying altered or novel routes and service schedules. While ridership has dropped dramatically, sufficient frequencies need to be maintained to limit crowding, allowing for social distancing on transit. For cities with robust underground systems, maintaining social distance within constrained stations is also a new concern. Sam Schwartz pedestrian managers are supporting the MTA in this effort in New York City.

Changes to traffic patterns: Medical facilities and delivery centers are among the sites having to deal with increased traffic. Drive-through and in-person testing centers present novel safety and access challenges. Responding quickly to the planning and operations of testing centers will be vital to ongoing public health measures; our team is assisting the District Department of Transportation in thinking through requisite implementation measures at specific sites in the DC region.

Emergency bike infrastructure: Bicycling is a good transport option for maintaining social distancing, and facilitating overall mobility in the face of reduced transit services. Temporary protected lanes, increased bikeshare availability around essential facilities, and other measures could help support bicyclists. In New York City, we’re assisting the Department of Transportation on the Citibike network’s expansion, bringing it to neighborhoods that aren’t currently served by bikeshare. This will provide another option for city residents as they look for ways to travel throughout the city.

Altered freight logistics: City and state governments must work with private sector agents to route and distribute necessities, such as food and medical supplies. Delivery infrastructure has to manage increased usage. In addition, there is a need to allocate more curb space for freight deliveries by implementing temporary regulations. Curb management strategies will help allow for flexibility and freight access.

Community engagement: While in-person engagement will be impossible in the near-term, communicating with the public is still essential. Creative solutions need to be explored. We are collaborating with clients, including MTA and CDOT, to think about how to translate public workshop formats into interactive online activities, while keeping mindful of the need to reach participants who do not have access to the internet, do not have time to participate, or are not comfortable with an online format. These challenges present an opportunity to try approaches old and new; a clearinghouse from the International Association of Public Participation provides the latest thinking on meeting the need for meaningful public engagement as projects proceed.

Long-term resilience: Once the immediate crisis has been addressed, governments will need to plan so they can be better prepared for future challenges, both predictable—outbreaks, natural disasters, climate change—and unanticipated. Building resilience requires a holistic perspective, encompassing physical infrastructure, social infrastructure, environmental sustainability, and equity, informed by deep community engagement. Planners’ subject-matter expertise will be important to these efforts.

This list is not exhaustive. The situation is fluid—it is unclear precisely what the demands on transit, streets, and public spaces will be as we emerge from shelter in place and lockdown orders and a new spike in infections remains a significant risk. But what is clear is that, right now and in the coming months, safe and effective mobility is integral to our societal response to this crisis.

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